Through its “Straight From the Source” publication and by other means, the federal agency U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is doing its part to sate the growing hunger among DREAMers to learn about how the agency handles applications for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). USCIS has released two blocks of data on the progress of the process, although the figures mainly paint a portrait of a badly needed form of relief for the nation’s undocumented youth without offering a great level of detail.

In the first month of application acceptance 82,361 packages were accepted and by mid-September 29 individuals had been granted Deferred Action. The stats as released by USCIS are below:

Through October 10 USCIS had accepted 179,794 applications and granted Deferred Action in 4,591 cases.

A remaining unknown is what portion of cases are being denied or issued Requests for Evidence (RFEs). The USCIS data do not speak to this and so far we have had to rely on anecdotal evidence. Most cases seem to be advancing without RFEs, but this perception is also skewed by a strong selection bias: the community we hear from is made up mostly of AILA attorneys, BIA-accredited representatives, and the rest of the CLINIC network. Because we are hearing from a group of talented, cautious, thoughtful practitioners it is likely the case that we are hearing about RFEs less often than they are being issued overall.